U-BOATS, LINERS^ AND U-S.A

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 73, 23 September 1939, Page 14

U-BOATS, LINERS^ AND U-S.A

The suggestion of newspaper correspondents that President Roosevelt is -' disturbed at the presence of German submarines off the United States coast is one more instance of the history of the World War repeating itself in tha present struggle. While many people are under the impression that it was. the torpedoing of the Lusitania .which • brought tne'United States into the last conflict, that is far from being the truth. The Lusitania, like the Athenia, was torpedoed without warning. As in the case of the Athenia, the Germans made clumsy excuses. Both ships had Americans on board. And, it would appear from the reports of some Britisn crews in the last fewdays, the conduct of the submarine commanders soon after each torpedoing was similar. That is to say, that in 1915 the Germans, alarmed at the strength" of the feeling aroused by the Lusitania sinking,, issued instructions that large passenger ships were to be spared unless they deliberately tried to injure submarines, and in 193- .the ■ Athenia sinking may have produced some similar warning. Actually, the sinking of the White Star liner Arabic by a submarine commander who feared it might ram him produced a further German warning in August, 1915, that no liners must be sunk without regard for the safety of passengers. Moreover, the German Government promised President W-ilson not to con" tinue to torpedo any unarmed vessels without warning and not to molest passenger ships of any nation. Ia March, 1916, the French packet ship Sussex, crowded with passengers, was torpedoed, and this thoroughly roused Mr. Wilson, who' demanded that the indiscriminate warfare should cease at once, and had his demands granted. The Germans declined to learn from experience, however, and raised renewed tension by sending the U53 across the Atlantic, where, in sight of Nantucket, she sank three British ships, a Dutch ship, and a Norwegian one.